Widening Access: RCM Sparks

RCM Sparks, our thriving learning and participation programme, opens up music education experiences for young people. This year it reached out to 2,500 local community members and trained more than 126 RCM students and graduates, as well as offering programmes online.

RCM Sparks workshops offer inspirational learning experiences for all, regardless of financial means. Free or subsidised places are available to children from a diverse range of underrepresented groups including those who are eligible for pupil premium, those who live in social housing, those from Black, Asian and minority-ethnic backgrounds, families eligible for housing benefit and/or working or family tax credit, families/ individuals eligible for disability benefit, service families, families from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, Young Carers and their families, and refugee families/families with migrant status. Sparks continues to work closely with the Tri-Borough Music Hub, bringing musical activities to schools and families in the London Boroughs of Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea. When the first lockdown began in March RCM Sparks moved all of its widening participation activity online, underlining the RCM’s commitment to supporting hard-to-reach families and schools. A digital toolkit and a variety of materials were provided to allow schools to access concerts and download accompanying resources for use in the classroom, and to give families access to practical musical activities for children of all ages. The Mini Sparks programme continued with video song bundles available online; children and families on the Sparks Juniors course had weekly live online workshops with the RCMJD teaching team; and the innovative Get, Set, Play course moved to live weekly interactive workshops for family groups in some of the most deprived areas in the Tri-Borough. Participants also had instrument packs sent to them at home. Our summer music project delivered two Percussion Pop-Up! sessions and two week-long music-making courses online, which helped RCM Sparks widen its geographical reach.

Opposite RCM Sparks delivering a creation composition project with young people from a partner secondary school

I think the encouragement my son got from RCM musicians fundamentally changed something for him. He had never heard any of his pieces performed before, this was a first. He was a bit self-conscious but after this week he feels more like a composer!

Parent of an RCM Sparks participant